Vision
As a department, we are committed to developing independent, autonomous learners. We want our students at Magna to enjoy English. They are inspired by our content, see the world through their work and raise their own aspirations through their engagement with English. We give them the tools to question and engage with every facet of the world they live in – Poole and beyond.
They enjoy a variety of differentiated tasks, catering for many interests and all abilities with pace, purpose and positivity. High expectations are maintained for all students and all lessons.
They become lifelong readers and have the opportunity to welcome a great breadth of texts into their experience.
By the end of their five or seven years at Magna our students are ready to thrive in the workplace.
They are thinkers, readers and dreamers. English students will grow into compassionate adults who are capable of reflecting upon their life’s experiences with exceptional empathy and humility.
Intent
At Magna Academy, we intend to develop core reading, writing and oracy in our students, using these to develop understanding of students’ place in the world and the issues that affect them.
Through a rigorous focus on writer’s purpose, students are encouraged to develop understanding of how meaning is shaped through writing, and then to develop this themselves in their own work. Students learn to express themselves clearly and comprehensively in a variety of contexts. We encourage exploration of personal responses to themes within texts, challenging their established ideas and perspectives and developing a deeper understanding of these. We focus on exploring different viewpoints and perspectives in society and how these are presented in the modern world.
Our culturally rich curriculum ensures that students study challenging and engaging texts from Year 7, irrespective of ability. Students are supported in their studies so that all make excellent progress. Students are exposed to a range of themes through their texts, allowing development of cultural capital.
It our intent to instil in students the practical skills that are transferable to all workplaces or further study, such as communication, critical thinking and writing for purpose.
Implementation
From Year 7, students are well equipped with the skills they need to access, understand and analyse texts and with the skills to become skilled at presenting their own ideas in creative and transactional writing and oracy. Students are encouraged to read widely, both through the content they study in class, their DEAR texts and homework and through library lessons which support student reading. An emphasis on Tier 2 vocabulary is embedded into our lessons, focusing on etymology, understanding and application of new vocabulary.
In Key Stage 3, students study a range of texts and ideas and our curriculum links across disciplines to link these ideas to the modern world.. Students begin to study the styles of texts which will formulate their GCSE course, such as poetic form and structure; structure and language analysis across a range of genres; creative and rhetorical writing. Alongside this focus on the GCSE skills students are challenged to think critically about themselves, the media and society and develop their own ways of presenting these ideas. Students are introduced to Shakespearean styles and that of pre-19th century writing, as well as a range of literary non-fiction and carefully curated moving image texts. Literature study is often supported through contextual factors studied in History, such as World War I, and links are made to other subjects – for example non-fiction arounf the natural world and ecology, linking closely to Geography. Through constant revision of methods, genres and themes, students develop their learning in a coherent manner, embedding these concepts into their long term memory. A real focus is placed upon the importance of reading for pleasure – both in class and in our library lessons. Students are exposed to a number of texts designed to springboard their own reading.
Students start their GCSE course in Year 10, focusing on the study of their literature texts and explicit language teaching. Students study Macbeth, A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls, alongside the Power and Conflict poetry cluster, as well as learning how to approach unseen extracts and poems. Students also experience live productions of our texts wherever possible.
All our learning is presented through high-quality lessons and carefully chosen resources. In lessons, teachers consistently use high level questioning, live marking, where the teacher gives individual verbal feedback, and hands down responses to check for student understanding of content. Whole class feedback is used to check for common misconceptions and address these through feedback lessons, in which students then demonstrate their improvement. In addition to this, students are led through aspirational live modelling of what top level writing or analysis could look like, and how to achieve this, thus teaching to the top.
Lessons are planned and implemented using our mastery foci, which have been developed from strict adherence to pedagogy. These are: challenge, explanation, modelling, deliberate practice, questioning, and feedback. In addition, teachers constantly engage with pedagogy in meetings and through CPD such as ResearchEd to develop our ability to turn short-term encounters into long-term learning.
Through oracy and discussion, students are encouraged to shape their own understanding of the texts, themes and the world around them, using the skills they have acquired to formulate their own conclusions.
English Curriculum Overview
English Age Related Expectations
Impact
In every lesson, assessment for learning is consistently used to gauge the understanding of all students, allowing key content to be recovered. In each lesson, teachers use high level questioning, whiteboard responses and chanting of key terminology and quotations to embed learning. Students also regularly complete written tasks which are then marked using whole class feedback.
Key Stage 3 has custom developed mark schemes which map the GCSE skills and are shaped around working towards, working at, and working above expected standards for that year. These establish a clear understanding for students of where their work should be. Key Stage 4 are then assessed using the GCSE AQA mark schemes which teachers are trained in application of, and regularly moderate. Teachers then use data trackers which give a question level analysis of areas of strength and weakness. Key Stage 5 is run in small groups, allowing individual, targeted feedback on all student work.